Marcel Leopold Stellman (15 February 1925 – 2 May 2021) was a Belgian born British record producer and lyricist. Among the many artists who recorded Stellman’s songs are

Cilla Black Priscilla Maria Veronica White (27 May 1943 – 1 August 2015), better known as Cilla Black, was an English singer, actress and television presenter. Championed by her friends the Beatles, Black began her career as a singer in 1963. Her ...

Petula Clark Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer. She has one of the longest serving careers of a British singer, spanning more than seven decades. Clark's professional career began during the ...

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( , ; born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, hy, Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրեան, ; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his dist ...

The Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

and

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birth ...

. In the UK he is best known as the man who brought the French show ''

Des chiffres et des lettres ''Des chiffres et des lettres'' (, "numbers and letters") is a French television programme. It was created by Armand Jammot and tests the numeracy skills and vocabulary of two contestants. It is one of the longest-running game shows in the world ...

'' to the UK as ''Countdown''. His pseudonyms as a lyricist include Gene Martyn and Leo Johns. Stellman was born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, Belgium. His mother, Lily, was Scottish and his father, Willy Stellman, was Belgian. In 1938 his father took him to his Uncle Leopold’s jazz club, where he saw

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perform. He was one of 11 children of Jewish parents, Lilly and Willy Stellman. His father died of natural causes when he was young and five of his siblings were killed in

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. However, his mother, who was Scottish, escaped the German invasion of Belgium in 1940 with the 14-year-old Marcel and settled in Glasgow. Stellman's long association with the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

began in the 1940s and 50s when he presented schools and children's radio programming. In the 1960s he worked on a television series for children featuring

Pinky and Perky ''Pinky and Perky'' is a children's television series first broadcast by BBC TV in 1957, and revived in 2008 as a computer-animated adaptation. Original series The title characters are a pair of anthropomorphic puppet pigs, named Pinky and ...

, two singing puppet pigs. In the 1980s he stood in for Alan Dell, presenting 'Sounds Easy' on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

. He died on 2 May 2021 at the age of 96. The episode of Countdown broadcast on 4 May 2021 was dedicated to him. Stellman won an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been a ...

for the lyrics he wrote for

the Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

Dance On! "Dance On!" is an instrumental by British group the Shadows, released as a single in December 1962. It went to number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and the Irish Singles Chart. A vocal version, with lyrics by Marcel Stellman, was recorded by Britis ...

", which was a hit for

Kathy Kirby Kathy Kirby (born Catherine Ethel O'Rourke; 20 October 1938 – 19 May 2011) was an English singer, reportedly the highest-paid female singer of her generation. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day's " Secret Love" and for re ...

in 1963. He also wrote the English lyrics to the songs ''

Tulips from Amsterdam "Tulips from Amsterdam" is a popular romantic song, best known in the 1958 hit version by British entertainer Max Bygraves. Most English versions of the song credit its composition to Klaus Günter Neumann, Ernst Bader, Ralf Arnie, and Gene Mar ...

'' and ''Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht'' (''Marble Breaks and Iron Bends'').

References

External Links

* * 1925 births 2021 deaths Belgian record producers British record producers Scottish people of Belgian descent British people of Belgian-Jewish descent Belgian Jews Scottish Jews People from Glasgow Lyricists {{Belgium-music-bio-stub